'Shepherding the Uplands' by Phil Hatcher-Moore

Phil Hatcher Moore was commissioned to take photographs portraying life for hill-sheep farming communities in rural North Wales. The images were exhibited along a popular footpath in the Dee Valley during the autumn/winter of 2018/19, showing the inner workings of life in the North Wales countryside.

Phil sought to get behind romantic notions of the uplands to examine the reality of living in an EU designated ‘less favoured areas’, where farming communities have been heavily subsidised by the EU (80% of some farmers income – itself an average of £13,000).

To do this, he looked into the workers’ lives and drew parallels and themes, following them across the different jobs they do and the ways that farmers diversify.

PHIL HATCHER-MOORE is a photo-journalist based in Wales but who travels the world in search of images and stories. His clients include the Guardian, AFP, Le Monde and other major news outlets, for whom he has covered conflicts in Syria, Libya and South Sudan.